INTIMATE - CONTEMPORARY - RELEVANT - POWERFUL - MULTIDISCIPLINARY

A R T I S T I C D I R E C T O R

Aria Evans is a Toronto-based, award winning, interdisciplinary artist working in dance creation, performance and film. She draws on her experiences as a woman of mixed race (Mi'kmaq/Black/settler heritage) as well as her BFA (2012) to capture meaningful social and cultural themes through her interactive art. Collaboration is the departure point to the work that she creates. She was co-Artistic Director of hub14 from 2013-2018 and the Toronto, Ontario and Canada Council for the arts have supported Aria’s endeavours as well as Volcano Theatre, Nightswimming Theatre, Jumblies Theatre, Native Earth Performing Arts and b current.

Aria has presented her own choreographic work with DanceWorks, Prairie Theatre Exchange, Theatre New Brunswick, The Toronto Concert Orchestra, Ontario Culture Days, Soulpepper, SummerWorks, Nightwood Theatre, the University of Toronto, HarbourKIDS, Native Earth Performing Arts, the Toronto Fringe, FRESH BLOOD, the Gardiner Museum, the Harbourfront Centre’s Next Step Series, Series 808 and Dance Ontario, Long Winter, Labspace Studio and many more. Her works have been presented in both North America and Europe. She has toured with Theatre New Brunswick, Kaha:wi Dance Theatre, created work commissioned by the Indigenous Performing Arts Alliance, performed for the Indspire awards, participated and performed in works by Tapestry Opera - Michelle Olson, Sylvain Émard, Michael Greyeyes and Yvette Nolan, Penny Chouchie, Julia Sasso, Peggy Baker, The Banff Centre, A Tribe Called Red, Susan Lee, Constance Cooke and Expect Theatre, to name a few.

Aria has sat on Canada Council and Dora Award juries, been an Invited Guest Contributor to the 20th anniversary Canadian Arts Summit, talked on interdisciplinary panels for CADA, TAPA’s INDIEX, DarkNights and On The Move. In 2017 she was chosen to participate as one of Culture Days' Youth Arts Ambassadors. Aria’s work in dance film has led her to being Kaeja d’Dance’s resident videographer and editor for the past six years. Independently, through film, she has collaborated with many of Toronto’s leading dance artists and organizations. Aria has done videography and editing for RT Collective, Dreamwalker Dance Company, MOonhORsE Dance Theatre, Julia Sasso Dances, Ryerson University, The Banff Centre, Dance Matters, Ella Cooper Creates, Canadian Dance Assembly and the Pulse Ontario Dance Conference, to name a few.

"Evans is an emerging interdisciplinary artist focusing on important and relevant cultural issues. If this is the work she is producing at the beginning of her artistic journey then it will be exciting to witness what Evans will produce throughout the rest of her career." - Mooney On Theatre